In general, a mobile terminal is a terminal capable of transmitting and receiving audio or video data, etc. while moving without regard to places. As a representative mobile terminal, there is a cellular phone or the like mobile communication terminal, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. That is, the term ‘mobile terminal’ involves the PDA, the cellular phone, etc., but the following descriptions will be limited to the PDA for the convenience of explanation.
The PDA is also called a pocket computer, which is a generic term for palm-sized small devices having calculation, information storage and searching functions for personal or business use. Occasionally, it has been mostly used in maintaining information about a schedule calendar, an address book, etc.
In particular, an industrial PDA has currently been mainly used in the distribution industry, but its market has been gradually spread. The industrial PDA refers to a PDA having various office functions, such as a barcode reader for reading a barcode printed on goods or the like, a credit card machine for charging to a credit card or the like, etc.
If the industrial PDA is used, it is advantageous to efficiently progress delivery, data management, related business, etc. For example, an insurance broker of an insurance company can directly process various insurance-related tasks such as customer information management, customer searching, scheduling, a daily record of consultation, memorial day searching, funds statement processing, etc. on the spot through the PDA; a medical worker of a hospital can input or search X-ray image and graphic data as well as medical records and history of a patient, and a prescription through the industrial PDA without being constrained by time and places; and a traffic or patrol cop of the police can perform a crackdown outside of the office through the industrial PDA so that a fine levied for violation of the traffic regulations, the payment of which is currently possible after a lapse of 2 or 3 days from the crackdown, can be directly paid to banking facilities, and it is thus possible for the traffic or patrol cop to remarkably reduce a time taken in the crackdown outside of the office.
Meanwhile, the barcode reader is a device capable of optically reading a barcode coded by combining bars different in thickness from one another, which emits light to the barcode printed on the goods or the like and reads information of the barcode on the basis of an electronic signal generated in accordance with intensity of reflected light. It is a common site that the barcode reader reads the barcode printed on goods and makes selling data when a customer buys goods in a supermarket or the like store. The barcode has been widely used from production management of goods up to selling management since it is correct in light of data input and easy to use. In particular, the barcode is judged to start a revolution in distribution industry.
Such a barcode reader may be provided as one module (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘barcode reader module’) in the industrial PDA. A conventional industrial PDA having the barcode reader module is configured to receive an operation signal for operating the barcode reader module through one of various button keys on a keypad placed in a certain region of a front casing of the industrial PDA.
However, the conventional industrial PDA having the barcode reader module has a problem of inconvenient operation, pointed out by a user, because s/he has to grasp the industrial PDA with his/her hand, find a button key for operating the barcode reader module on the keypad where a plurality of button keys are densely combined, and press it with a thumb of the hand grasping the industrial PDA or an index finger or the like of the other hand when reading the barcode printed on the goods or the like.
Also, a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader module using a local area frequency as well as the barcode reader module has recently been well-used, and research and development have been progressed for effectively applying the RFID reader module to the current mobile terminal.
Accordingly, in developing the industrial PDA having an information recognition module such as the barcode reader module or the RFID reader module, there is a need of fully considering the convenience and stability for operating the information recognition module.